Confirmed by data. This year’s April was the warmest in the history of measurements

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April 2024 was globally warmer than any previous April in the ERA5 data record that begins in 1940.

The average air temperature at the surface, according to calculations based on satellite measurements of the Copernicus service, was 15.03 °C.

The previous record from April 2016 was thus surpassed by 0.14 °C. Compared to the long-term average of 1991-2020, this year’s April was warmer by 0.67 °C.

And compared to the estimate of the April average in the years 1850-1900, i.e. the time set as the reference period before the Industrial Revolution, the past month was warmer by 1.58°C.

“The El Niño climate phenomenon peaked earlier in the year and sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are now returning to neutral conditions. However, while the temperature swings associated with El Niño come and go, the additional energy trapped in the ocean and atmosphere due to rising greenhouse gas concentrations will continue to push global temperatures to new records,” commented Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Service, on the results.

According to the average global air temperature, April is already the 11th record month in a row. The average global sea temperature is now recording even the thirteenth record in a row.

At the same time, Copernicus pointed out that the data on the average temperature in Europe erases the contrast between the heat and the cold that the west of the old continent experienced in the beginning and the second half of April.

The Copernicus program is part of the EU-funded space program of the European Union and is the flagship of the Earth observation programme.